Soccer and craft beer go well together

[media-credit name=”provided by the Free Beer Movement” align=”aligncenter” width=”495″][/media-credit] These guys know something about soccer – and also beer.

Soccer and craft beer pair well. In the U.S., both are about allegiances, a DIY ethic, thinking local, bands of believers prone to deep conversations about the important and obscure, and standing a little outside the mainstream.

Craft beer is growing but still only accounts for 6.5 percent of the U.S. beer market. And despite soccer’s status as the world’s game, the growing popularity of European soccer on these shores and improving Major League Soccer attendance, this is not the NFL.

A couple of events are converging this week in the Mile High City – Colorado Craft Beer Week and the U.S. men’s national soccer team’s World Cup qualifier Friday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

Coincidence? Maybe. Probably.

Someone with similar thoughts is Dan Wiersema, a middle-school teacher from Austin, Texas, who began something called the Free Beer Movement. Dan’s idea is simple … if soccer fans were to just buy a beer for a friend unfamiliar with the sport and share it while watching a game, a life-long love affair with the beautiful game might very well begin.

Daniel was first introduced to soccer at age 6 while living in Düsseldorf, West Germany. He played youth soccer in West Germany until age 9, and then in Seattle, where he is originally from. He works as the day breaking news editor and also contributes on the Rapids beat.